18 months at Docker Paris

Posted on 2017, May 09
8 mins read

Whoa, it’s been a while I haven’t blogged! Some say I use to blog every day. That was a long time ago…

What hasn’t changed since that time is my interest for Docker. I remember I shared tips about Java, Agile and testing but I also started blogging a lot about Docker, the Cloud and Ops in general. I’ve always been into Ops but being a freelance gave me the time to improve my weaker skills. And, guess what, it turned out pretty well.

So well that I helped open the Docker Paris office a bit more than 18 months ago. And since then, it’s been a real treat!

What is it you're doing in Paris for Docker? That can't be engineering, right? It's all done in SF.

This must be the sentence I hear the most when attending conferences. I then have to explain what we are in fact doing. And people are usually amazed. So let’s do it publicly, once and for all :-)

In Paris, we are mainly a R&D office. We work very closely with San Francisco and Cambridge offices to develop products that you might use and love every day. Or maybe you don’t and I would be happy to hear from you!

Docker Machine - Challenge accepted!

My journey at Docker started with Docker Machine. It was a very good opportunity to practice both Go and my Open-Source skills. Also, at that time, Docker Machine was very flawed, specially on Windows. In three months, I helped bring Docker Machine from a 60% installation failure rate on Windows to less than 15%. You might think 15% is too high but I can tell you that making every version of VirtualBox work on every version of Windows, no matter what mess what accumulated by those two, is no small feat!
That was a lot of fun and it helped me reboot my Windows knowledge completely!

Docker for Windows - You thought Docker Machine was complicated?

Then, in February, I had the opportunity, with the rest of the Paris Office (4 of us at that time) to work on a new product: Docker for Windows.
I’ve been working on it at least part time since then. It has been some incredible kind of roller coaster!
In February 2016, the Cambridge and SF offices had been working on Docker for Mac for about 6 months. And collectively, we had to catch up on Windows and be ready for DockerCon in June. I had to learn C# again. And WPF. I had to improve my low-level understanding on Virtual Machines, system programming, networking. Did I say I also happen to know quite a bit of PowerShell now? ;-)

And we delivered! There are still things to be improved but Docker for Windows is The simplest way to run both Linux and Windows containers on Windows 10.

I’m also starting to spend some time in the Kubernetes community. I believe both communities have everything to gain from a better collaboration. Have you seen how one can start Kubernetes with Linuxkit?

We are hiring

The Paris Team is now 18 engineers strong. We are working on the present and future of Docker’s products. And we need help!

We have open positions for R&D engineers, Support engineers, Q/A engineers.

You don’t have to know Go or be a Kernel developer. Well if you are, that’s good, of course, but we are really open to people with different backgrounds.

If you know good male and female engineers that could be interested, please share this article, ping me or go to our job board.

The Paris office is really a great place to work. Our colleagues from SF are always a bit jealous when they come!